Strictly Come Dancing / Alan Dudman / 24 October 2008 /

Alan Dudman talks us through the intricacies of the Paso Doble and the Viennese Waltz, this week's featured dances, and tells us where our money should be going this Saturday.

Firstly I would like to apologise for last week. I made a flippant comment designed purely for cheap laughs and for that I am sorry, it was not big and it was not clever. I cruelly said that Andrew Castle was once ranked 545,978th in the world as a tennis player. This was a bare-faced lie, and I was in the wrong - he did in fact reach 545,971 in 1991 after defeating a particularly tough stick of celery. Scores were 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 7-7 (Castle winning an epic tie break).

Talking of celery, do you remember the old Max Bygraves song: "Celery, celery, she
wouldn't......" actually I probably can't print that.

Moving on swiftly......

And following the elimination of Don Warrington last week (which I thought to be a tad harsh), the punting public would probably share my opinion in that this is an extremely open contest, perhaps the most open we have seen. Austin Healey remains favourite at [3.55], but I think he is there to be shot at, with Tom ([4.80]), Cherie ([5.00]) and Rachel ([6.40]) all breathing down his muscular neck.

And of the public, they seem to hold sway more than ever this year. The voting seems to be on personalities and tight tops (which is lucky for Mark Foster as he only has the latter) rather than dexterity on the floor, or lack of it in the case of John Sargeant.

Week six looks very hard, not only to we have to try and second guess how the people vote, we also have to put up with Enrique Iglesias blubbing his way through 'Hero', good grief. Change the 'h' to a 'z' and we are slightly warmer Enrique. Git.

Memo to Beeb - you'd be better off bring his Dad in!

Over this weekend, 11 will become ten as the contestants tackle the Paso Doble and the Viennese Waltz. Anyone who has the latter will probably be relieved, as the Paso is one of the hardest dances. I can testify - I tried it at Guanabara in Camden once.

Poor old Heather Small could be the focal point here as she faces a hat-trick of dance-offs if she fails to deliver with her Waltz. The singer seems to have rubbed up the public in the wrong way, perhaps retribution for a string of rubbish records? Who knows?

She is [7.2] in the lowest score market, yet trades a lot shorter at [3.25] to get the boot. I actually feel sorry for her as she has been ok, but the confidence has gone completely which is sad to see, with someone remarking this week 'this isn't the Heather we know'.

The complexities of the voting is summed up perfectly with John Sargeant. He is absolutely useless, but very likeable. He has the Paso Doble this Saturday and he'll struggle. This dance is the Spanish bullfighter dance,and John needs to give us some pizazz. He is quite rightly [1.44] for the lowest score, which looks nailed on, yet is fourth favourite for elimination.

The saving grace for bullfighter John is that he has been involved in politics for many years, therefore will be au fait with fighting a lot of bull.

Elsewhere, Royal photographer Lisa Snowdon seems to be getting better and better. Brendan seems to be mellowing in his old age, mellowing or happy with Lisa's dancing? Either way, the sexy couple have the most suitable dance this week and I am looking forward to the intensity of their Paso.

My favourite Christine also has the bullfighter's dance, and this could be her toughest task to date. Naturally smiley and radiant, the Irish lass needs to be aggressive and mean, it will be interesting to see how she copes as apparently she hasn't got to grips with the 'non-smiling' aspect of the dance.

Funny that, my old girlfriend was excellent in doing 'non-smiley'.

The Viennese Waltz lies in wait for Tom Chambers and Austin Healey, a dance that needs to be romantic, sweeping, and flowing like the Danube (thank you google).

Healey, strangley, seems to be more interested in 'camping it up' these days
and I am thinking his dancing isn't perhaps as strong as we all thought it was,
and could be another 'one-trick pony'.

Tom however is looking good, he excelled with the American Smooth and I think he'll be better suited to the Waltz than Austin and has my money this week.

Recommendations:

Back Tom Chambers Week 6 Highest Score [3.55]
Back Lisa Snowdon Week 6 Highest Score [10.00]
Back Heather Small 6th Elimination [3.25]
Lay Austin Healey in Outright Winner market [3.60]

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